Meal-Prep Monday: Steak Rice Bowls

Oh. My glob. You guys.

How is it August already? I feel like this summer is flying by. And of course, in Calgary, it has been raining the entire freaking time. It’s AWFUL. I don’t mind the odd good summer thunderstorm, but when it’s raining 25/8 it just plain sucks. You can’t do all the normal fun, outdoors, summer stuff that I look forward to all winter long, ya know? It’s just terrible. Someone please take this rain away from us. Alberta has had enough.

My life is currently being consumed by meet prep. All I’m doing is training, eating weighed and measured meals, and avoiding patios like the plague. Not because I don’t love them, lord knows I do, but all those delicious beer carbs would make me seriously not make weight in two weeks. It’s kinda a bummer, because I feel like I’m bailing on a lot because I’m so exhausted from training, and just don’t have the room in my macros to go out and eat and drink. If I go out with my good friends or the people I train with, they get it, and it’s fine. But like, two weeks out from a meet is not a good time to organize a Tinder date, because the dude will just flat out think you’re crazy.

Oh P.S. I signed up for Tinder again. I have so many thoughts on the matter, including but not limited to an already mile-long list of ‘times I face-palmed myself so hard I almost cried’. But we’ll save that for another time.

Can we also briefly touch on how excited I am that Bachelor in Paradise is back? Like, I am a huge fan of The Bachelor/ Bachelorette franchise. Don’t judge, it’s like junkfood for the mind, it’s great. Though, if you don’t also thoroughly love trashy television, we may not be able to be friends. Anyways, Jojo’s season of ‘producer intervention-driven trickery into making us think Jordan wasn’t obviously going to win’ is finally over. Don’t get me wrong, Jojo is adorable, and her and Jordan will have adorable NFL practice squad-destined children together, but it was just so ridiculously obvious that Jordan was going to win that the entire season just reeked of producer intervention. Paradise on the other hand? It’s its own self-sufficient gong show. Like, even Chris Harrison openly admits it’s a train wreck, it’s just that beautiful. I’m so excited.

Have I also ever mentioned how I would be SO INCREDIBLY DOWN to do a Bachelor in Paradise podcast with someone? Get at me!

Now, some tasty steak bowls

Ingredients

2 lbs Boneless Flank Steak

4 tbsp Teriyaki Baste and Glaze Sauce (I use Kikkoman)

4 cups broccoli (565g)

1 cup brown basmati rice

1 container cherry tomatoes (11.3oz)

Olive Oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

Balsamic Vinegar

Instructions

Get that $#!% marinated

Smother the steak with the teriyaki sauce. If you have time, leave the steak and sauce in a Ziploc bag in the fridge for 6-24 hours to marinade. If not, leaving the steak to sit in the sauce while you prepare the rest of this recipe works pretty well also.

Preheat the oven to 400*F

Add the rice and 2 cups of water to a small saucepan with lid. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat. Cover, and let simmer until the water is cooked off. Fluff the rice with a fork once or twice while it’s cooking.

Cut up the broccoli into large pieces, and spread them out on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle the garlic over the broccoli. Season lightly with pepper. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden.

Broccoli ready to go in the oven

Once the broccoli is done, switch your oven to its broiler setting. Spread out the tomatoes on a baking sheet, and drizzle a small amount of balsamic vinegar. Cook under the broiler for approximately 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes begin to burst.

For the steak, there are many ways to cook it, but I did mine in the barbeque. Preheat the barbeque to a medium-high heat. Start by grilling the steak for about 4 minutes per side, close to the heat. Then, reduce the heat on the burners, move the steak a bit further away from the heat, and cook for an additional 2 minutes per side. This results in a medium-rare steak, adjust cooking times accordingly if you want your steak more well done.

To serve, add ¼ of the rice to a bowl. Layer in ¼ of the broccoli and ¼ of the tomatoes to each bowl. Slice the steak into ½” strips, and distribute amongst the 4 portions, serving the steak on the top of the bowl. Enjoy!